Thomas Stemberg, founder of Staples office superstore, dies at 66

The former CEO of the company passed away earlier this morning following a long battle with cancer.

A former grocery executive, Stemberg came up with the idea for Staples after driving around in search of a printer ribbon on July 4th weekend 1985, when stores were closed. The holdup pushed him to develop one of the first specialized superstores in the country at a time when they were unheard of.

In 1986 he co-founded Staples with Leo Kahn, a grocery rival, and had the backing of investors including Bain Capital, which was co-founded by Mitt Romney. Still, his previous employers acknowledged the young executive “was brilliant and he was driven”.

Stemberg had joined the firm in 2005. The firm focuses on the consumer industry.

Stemberg also founded children’s footwear retailer Olly Shoes and the Zoots dry-cleaning chain.

“When I invest, I look for two things above all: a great market and a great entrepreneur”, Mr. Stemberg said, according to a 2014 article in Inc. magazine. “The business plan is going to change”. The team is going to evolve. After his father died when he was 13, he moved with his mother to her native Vienna, where he attended the American worldwide School, according to Wikipedia. He survived by six sons: Rylan Hamilton, Darrell Williams, Thomas McDermott Stemberg, Clyde Stemberg and Michael Stemberg and William Stemberg, family told Bloomberg.